[boatbums]

>>My understanding is that they are OT books and not recognized as Scripture by the Jews. Therefore, they would not qualify as Scripture.<<

Then your understanding is wrong. At the time of our Lord the Jews accepted the entire Pentateuch. It was only latter that they restricted the Scriptures to those books written in Hebrew. Then again, they also rejected the entire New Testament.

The Pentateuch is only the first five books of the Hebrew Old Testament. They are known as the Books of Moses and the Torah. Did you mean the Septuagint?

Here is some information about the Septuagint that explains how the Jews and early Christians came to accept the writings that make up what is called the Christian Bible: What is the Septuagint?

>>Who get s to decide? Well, anyone can add any books they want to the Bible, but that doesn't make them Scripture in the classic sense.<<

But who gets to decide what is Scripture in the classic sense? Christianity had a consensus on the Bible for 1500 years until the Protestants remove the Deuterocanonical / Apocryphal books.

I know you think you are defending the Roman Catholic recognition of the Deuterocanonical/Apocryphal books as equal to the Divinely-inspired Old and New Testament books accepted by ALL Christian traditions, but you are misinformed about many points here. Here is an additional link that will help:

What are the Apocrypha/Deuterocanonical Books?

This will also be helpful to explain why the Apocryphal books were not counted as in the canon of the Bible:

The Canon of Scripture

The Apocrypha

Luther's View of the Canon

[Petrosius]

Yes, I meant the Deuterocanonical books.